Centre County’s Board of Commissioners and the State College Area School Board this week each urged lawmakers to pass a state budget as an impasse now reaching its fourth month takes a toll on local governments and agencies throughout the commonwealth.
While Centre County has not had to cut services or furlough any of its more than 560 employees to date, the lack of state funding is costing the county “in the ballpark of $800,000 a week,” from its reserves, Board of Commissioners Chair Mark Higgins said on Tuesday. He added that it is not just the county itself that’s under pressure from the budget deadlock, but also the approximately 100 human services agencies it supports and companies it contracts with.
The commissioners unanimously approved a resolution drafted by the County Commissioners Association of Pennsylvania calling for lawmakers, as Commissioner Steve Dershem put it, “to get this done.”
County officials believe they can make it to the end of the year without cutting services or laying off employees, but Higgins said other counties may not be as fortunate.
“Probably some of the counties nearby aren’t going to be able to make it to the end of the year,” Higgins said. “So [it’s a] very serious situation and we strongly urge the legislature to get together, hash it out, compromise, come up with a budget even if it’s 100 and some days late. A lot of desperate people need those services and need those funds.”
Unlike the commonwealth’s June 30 deadline, all 67 Pennsylvania counties are required to adopt the next year’s budget by Dec. 31, and it’s possible Centre County could have to borrow money in early 2026 if a state budget isn’t adopted by then, Higgins said. That’s preferable, however, to borrowing now, when the funding could have to be paid back by the end of the year, he said.
Still, Dershem said, by taking from its reserves, the county is losing out on interest income it would have otherwise earned, “which has an impact on our budget for next year as well.”
“We don’t have the resources to make it until next July,” Dershem said. “And that would be painful for not only us, but a lot of folks in the Commonwealth. So I would urge that they get together, shake some hands, try to figure out a way to get through this and come up with a sensible budget that works as best it can given the circumstance.”
The county also faces the prospect of developing a budget without knowing what funding it will receive from the state
“We really don’t have any guidelines other than, ‘well, we’re going to gauge it against what we did last year.’ And that’s really the best knowledge that we have,” Dershem said. “And that’s not a good budgeting practice. I think knowing what those numbers are going to be, and hopefully they’ll be reasonable, so we don’t have to do budget revisions all through next year, I think it has real meaning for us and a lot of other folks in the community, including Penn State, that obviously relies on that funding as well.”
Counties and school districts, meanwhile, need to continue to provide mandated services, which is an even more challenging task for those that are not as well-positioned as Centre County, Commissioner Amber Concepcion said.
“The most economically disadvantaged areas of Pennsylvania are feeling this the most severely and it’s those that are most reliant on state funding… to provide mandated services…,” Concepcion said. “And it’s just not reasonable to to have this kind of unpredictability with the state budget. So we’re just asking that they get together and work on it until they have a resolution.”
Concepcion, a former State College Area School Board member, noted that Pennsylvania school districts have a state aid ratio correlating to their level of economic need, and those with greater need have a higher percentage of their budget from state funding.
“They are the least able to make it through a prolonged impasse like this without state funding coming in,” she said. “So it has the greatest impact on those who are most reliant on state funding, [which] are the least able to cope with this kind of really prolonged budget impasse. It’ll begin to have really real-world effects. So it needs to get taken care of.”
State College Area School District is “fortunate that a majority of our revenue we are in control of, and so we can predict,” school board President Amy Bader said during the board’s meeting on Monday night.
“Other districts in our state are not in such fortunate situations, and yet, nevertheless, they all still do meet their budget deadline of June 30, while our state has failed to do so,” Bader said.
The school board unanimously adopted a resolution, prepared by the Pennsylvania School Board Association, urging the General Assembly and Gov. Josh Shapiro to end an impasse that “has withheld over $3 billion in education funding statewide, forcing school districts to borrow funds, deplete reserves, delay essential services, and consider program cuts that directly impact students, educators and families.”
“This resolution is, in effect, all of us hopefully banding together — hopefully many school districts across the state will pass this — and frankly, a plea to our legislature to put politics aside and get done the things that need to get done,” Bader said.
The resolution states that “flat funding is not an option,” board member Jackie Huff said. It urges lawmakers to continue working toward meeting a 2023 court ruling that ordered the commonwealth to address inequitable school funding.
It also called for the state to reimburse interest and fees accrued by districts due to borrowing during the impasse; immediately release federal funds owed to districts and currently held by the state, where they are earning interest; and to establish uniform statewide tuition rate for students attending cyber charter schools.
The lack of a state budget has interconnecting impacts on families, board member Peter Buck said, with funding for education, public transportation, libraries and foster care all affected.
“When you put all of those other organizations together, those are the the most underserved children already, and the potential for long-term damage to those families is really remarkable,” Buck said. “So our legislators need to get their stuff together. This damages the the weakest among us the most.”
Bader added that the federal government shutdown and the pending suspension of Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program benefits on Nov. 1 will further add to the damage.
“There’s many, many dominoes that affect one another,” Bader said. “I think it’s just important for our community and the public to understand that all these things are interconnected, and there are multiple factors at play that are harmful to the most vulnerable people in our community. So not only is it morally and ethically the right thing to do, the legislature is frankly failing at their obligation to do so.”
At Tuesday’s commissioners meeting, Higgins said that because of the lengthy state budget delay it was unlikely the county would be able to spare support for programs like food assistance.
“We definitely would urge Centre County citizens to support your local human service agencies, food banks, etc.,” Higgins said. “We’re heading into the holiday season, but for a lot of people, this is becoming a very tough time for them.
“At this point, I think unfortunately the county has to focus on our core mission of providing these services and keeping county employees paid. We just may not have enough spare cash at this point to do optional things…. We had looked into it earlier in the year when we thought there might be the possibility of a federal shutdown, but not a state shutdown at the same time. It’s pretty rough for lots of groups at this point. No federal funding, no state funding and no end in sight at the moment for either one of those groups.”
